I have always heard lime juice will keep snakes away. I googled it and i found that it maybe true. This article mentions a couple of different things.
http://www.ehow.com/way_5729376_home...repellent.html
I know..... I got trapped on a pier at Lake Claiborne when I was about 9 years old by a HUGE one. It stretched across while I was sitting on the pier. I couldn't get back to land and it was staring right at me. I yelled as loud as I could and, luckily, there was some fishers near by and they raced over and picked me up. It was still coming right at me when I got in the boat - luckily it wasn't moving fast. They shot it and got me back to my family's lake house and I don't think I went outside the rest of the weekend. :icon_wink:
Cats, Cats, Cats they work for me we have two wild ones outside and I live on the edge of a pond. No snakes.
I hate snakes. I try to leave the non poisonous ones alone, but I hate a snake. Last spring when the water was up so high around here I saw no less than 7 snakes in one day up at the lake. I was FREAKED out. I tried to let them be but the dogs were going nuts and finally I had enough and killed one of them. It was writhing around in some muddy water down by my pool and it made me sick to look at so I killed it. My nerves were wrecked - trying to work around the pool and having to watch every step I took so I took it out on the snake. I felt bad later though, because I felt like it was just a water snake and not poisonous.
I cought a 3 foot water moccasin in our back yard a while back. It was pretty crazy. I was dogsitting for a friend and when I came home the dog was going nuts. Apparently the dog bit the snake but not the other way around although I'm sure it wasn't for lack of trying. I managed to wrangle the snake into a trash can with a couple of golf clubs. Why I didn't club the thing to death is beyond me. So I had a pissed off cottonmouth in a trashcan to show people for a day or so. Then I had a friend bring a shovel over (I hadn't been in the house long and didn't even have a shovel). We let the snake out of the trash can and I thoght I could kill it with one swift shot behind the head from the shovel. Well the ground was soft and I ended up just cutting it pretty bad and mashing it into the ground. When I pulled the shovel back it took off after us and it took about 4 or 5 wacks with the shovel to kill it. I must have looked like an idiot between the golf clubs and the shovel. I had a picture of its dead body by a yard stick on my phone for a while.
If you have coyotes howling then the cats won't last too long if they wander enough to find the snakes. I use a shovel and mow the grass low. You might consider what the food source of the snake is and make sure to eliminate it. I usually kill two rattle snakes every year and the shovel works well.
WWDog
La Tech
Region and hyphen free since 1894!
Flagship of the University of Louisiana System
Yep, and the smell of their venom doesn't thrill me either.
by detltu
I cought a 3 foot water moccasin in our back yard a while back. It was pretty crazy. I was dogsitting for a friend and when I came home the dog was going nuts. Apparently the dog bit the snake but not the other way around although I'm sure it wasn't for lack of trying. I managed to wrangle the snake into a trash can with a couple of golf clubs.
You must have some docile moccasins around there. I was driving in one day and noticed a kid was wading/fishing in the shallows and then he started thrashing the water with his fishing rod...luckily he saw him in time and hooked him with the lure and held him away. I met him about half-way down the hill with a shovel. When it was over, he was grinning and shaking at the same time. All the ones I've run into are pretty aggressive if they think they're holding all the cards.
I find that peeing in my pants and running works well the put distance between me and any snake. However I prerer the shotgun method when ever possible.
it's really amazing how aggressive copperheads and cottonmouths can be. copperheads aren't as scary because they aren't nearly as big, but those little things are every bit as ornery.
i killed a nearly-five-foot cottonmouth with a rotten pecan branch once. it came straight up out of the creek behind Tech dairy like it wanted to eat me, and i'm not sure it wouldn't have tried.
....and copperheads are tougher to spot. If you're ever thru Winnfield, Martin Timber Co. is just south of town on the E. side of 167. Walk in the wood framed office by the yard.... there's an old photo on the wall of a lumberjack with a dead (probably 8 ft.) rattlesnake draped over his shoulder. Logging, etc. in the south comes with some risks.